EXPERIENTIAL COURSE IN COMMUNITY AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
In 2018 the Philadelphia Association launched a new one-year course, the Experiential Course in Community and Psychotherapy, which has proved to be a very successful addition to the study programme.
For more than fifty years the idea of community has been at the heart of the PA. From the experiment at Kingsley Hall to its current therapeutic households, the PA’s work has always involved a shared attempt to deal with the hardship of emotional distress through the practice of living together.
When the PA was set up, its counter-culture mission was to find an alternative to psychiatric treatment and mental hospitals. All these years later the world has changed beyond recognition. Mental hospitals have mostly been closed down but they haven’t been replaced by a more enlightened and communal approach to suffering, as RD Laing and other PA founders hoped they would be. Instead cost-cutting quick fixes and a punishing work ethic are the order of the day. Community as a therapeutic ideal remains as elusive as ever in today’s fragmented, competitive and increasingly digital world. Yet the need for it is more and more urgent.
But it isn’t as easy as saying that community is good and marginalisation is bad. It is possible to feel at home in prison and in prison at home. Bands of outsiders – a gang or an addicts’ self-help group – may be much more tolerant, cohesive and healing than golf clubs or churches. The shared experience of adversity often creates a powerful solidarity, while shared privilege can be divisive and alienating. Thus thinking about community must also involve thinking about how one group impacts, threatens, ignores, deprives another. Community presupposes conflict.
This new course will serve both as an introduction to the PA (including its houses) and an encounter with various modes of group work. Seminars will frame topics to discuss but the heart of the course is experiential, comparative learning about group formats and dynamics – and their relationship to the politics of the wider society.
Held at the PA premises in Hampstead, north London, the course takes place over six weekends spread out over the academic year. It will be possible to apply to the full Training from the Experiential Course.
The course costs £840 plus a £50 interview fee. To apply, please contact the Courses Administrator, Rebecca Coles, courses@philadelphia-association.com.
FULL PROGRAMME 2019–20
Autumn 2019
WEEKEND 1
Saturday 19 October
10–10.30 Arrival
10.30–11.30 Introduction to the course
11.30–12.30 Seminar – The history of the PA
Facilitators: Barbara Latham and Lucy King
BARBARA LATHAM came from New Zealand and found the PA in 1972 to begin training. She has been learning the practice of therapy ever since. She also writes fiction.
LUCY KING is Chair of the PA Council of Management. She trained at the PA and practices as a psychotherapist in Cambridge.
1.30–3.30 Seminar – Introduction to groups
Facilitators: Dan Jones
DAN JONES is a Group Analyst in Cambridge. He studied philosophy, was a psychiatric nurse, and has worked as a psychotherapist and group therapist for many years in charities, the NHS and privately.
3.30–4 Break
4–5.30 Experiential group
Facilitator: Lakis Georghiou
LAKIS GEORGHIOU trained as a psychotherapist at the PA. From the outset of his training journey, the group experience provided him both sustenance yet at the same time an essential challenging of closely held positions that would never have seen the light of day if it wasn't for all the varied groups he encountered. He was the Introductory Course experiential facilitator for three years and is a House Therapist at the PA Freegrove community. “If one could possess, grasp, and know the other, it would not be other” (Emmanuel Levinas).
Sunday 20 October
10.30–11 Arrival
11–12.30 Seminar – I can't, we can: the success of self-help fellowships in the treatment of addiction
Facilitator: Nick Mercer
NICK MERCER trained as a psychotherapist at the PA. Prior to that, he worked for many years as an addictions counsellor in drug and alcohol rehab, both in prisons and out in the community, where mutual aid groups like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous formed the backdrop of treatment and were the preferred suggestion for aftercare alongside further professional support. Many of the people who connected with these meetings achieved and maintained a long-term sobriety that had previously eluded them. In short, the self-help networks succeeded were other attempts to get clean or sober – individual therapy, substitution prescribing, CBT etc – had failed. To this day, the quiet success of AA’s approach to addiction continues throughout the world and continues to be largely ignored by the world of psychotherapy, hence the title of this seminar.
12.30–1.15 Lunch (not provided)
1.15–3.30 Film screening and discussion
Facilitator: Rob White
ROB WHITE is author of the books Freud's Memory (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) and Todd Haynes (University of Illinois Press, 2013). He is an Associate Member of the Group Analytic Society International.
4–5.30 Experiential group
Facilitator: Lakis Georghiou
WEEKEND 2
Saturday 23 November
10.–10.30 Arrival
10.30–12.30 Seminar – What is community?
Facilitator: Jake Osborne
JAKE OSBORNE has a long-standing interest in community and homelessness. He currently works in one of the PA houses, as well as providing psychotherapy for the homeless with St Mungo's.
12.30–1.30 Lunch (not provided)
1.30–3.30 Seminar – Race identities in the therapy room
Facilitator: Eugene Ellis
EUGENE ELLIS trained as an Integrative arts psychotherapist and is the founder of the Black, African and Asian Therapy Network (BAATN), which is the UK's largest independent organisation to specialise in working with Black, African, Asian and Caribbean clients. He has worked for many years with traumatised children and their families in the field of adoption and fostering. He brings his special interest in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Somatic Experiencing and other body orientated therapies to both his work in adoption and his work in facilitating dialogues around race identities within therapeutic practice.
3.30–4 Break
4–5.30 Experiential group
Facilitator: Lakis Georghiou
Sunday 24 November
10.30–11 Arrival
11–12.30 Seminar – Social class and psychotherapy
Facilitator: Paul Gurney
PAUL GURNEY studied Philosophy and Politics at Southampton University, Psychodynamic Counselling at Goldsmiths College and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy at the PA. He has been in practice since 1987 in charity, NHS and private sectors. Publications include "The Acc(id)ental Tourist: exploring the tribal areas between class and race" in Sitegeist no. 3.
12.30–1.15 Lunch (not provided)
1.15–3.30 Film screening and discussion
Facilitator: Rob White
4–5.30 Experiential group
Facilitator: Lakis Georghiou
Winter/spring 2020
WEEKEND 3
Saturday 11 January
10–10.30 Arrival
10.30–1 Workshop – Gender groups
Facilitators: Paul Atkinson and Ellie Guedalla
PAUL ATKINSON is an independent psychotherapist working in London. He runs mens' therapy groups, campaigns with mental health activists against psychocompulsion through DWP 'work cure' policies, and is a member of the Free Psychotherapy Network.
ELLIE GUEDALLA has been working in Substance Misuse Services since 2009. In partnership with the Specialist Substance Misuse Midwife, Comet Children's Centre, and Hackney Recovery Services she established and now delivers The Orbit Project. The Orbit enables access to and provides support for both expectant mothers and parents with pre-school-age children who are known to local drug and alcohol services and Children's Social Care. At the heart of the Orbit is a therapeutic stay and play/creche. The Orbit provides groups and one-to-one sessions with a variety of health and therapeutic practitioners that would otherwise be inaccessible to these families.
1–2 Lunch (not provided)
2–3.30 Seminar – Women's narratives
Facilitator: Christina Moutsou
CHRISTINA MOUTSOU completed her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. She trained as a therapist with the PA. She has published three co-edited books, the latest being The Mother in Psychoanalysis and Beyond: Matricide and Maternal Subjectivity (Routledge, 2016), with Rosalind Mayo. Her novel, a complex and multi-layered family story with psychoanalysis at its core, Black Cake, was published in Greek by Archetypo in March 2018. Her collection of short stories, Fictional Clinical Narratives in Relational Psychoanalysis: Stories from Adolescence to the Consulting Room, will be published by Routledge in September 2018. She works as a therapist in private practice and she is a visiting lecturer at Regent’s University.
3.30–4 Break
4–5.30 Experiential group
Facilitator: Lakis Georghiou
Sunday 12 January
10.30–11 Arrival
11–12.30 Seminar – Exploring ways of working with traditional masculinity
Facilitator: Andy Metcalf
ANDY METCALF is a couples and individual therapist . He has been in men's groups; writes and talks about working with men; and is committed to helping men find new and non destructive ways of expressing their masculine selves.
12.30–1.15 Lunch (not provided)
1.15–3.30 Film screening and and discussion
Facilitator: Rob White
3.30–4 Break
4–5.30 Experiential group
Facilitator: Lakis Georghiou
WEEKEND 4
Saturday 7 March
10–10.30 Arrival
10.30–1 Seminar – Group dynamics using drama and music: ways of connecting
Facilitators: Alison Davies and Ditty Doktor
ALISON DAVIES is a PA-trained psychotherapist and group therapist. She is also a Music Therapist and Artist.
DITTY DOKTOR is a drama, dance movement and groupanalytic psychotherapist. She has worked clinically for the NHS, charities and trained arts therapists at various universities. She now works privately in Cambridge and weaves tapestries.
1–2 Lunch (not provided)
2–3.30 Seminar – The politics of exclusion: working with homelessness
Facilitator: Nicola Saunders
NICOLA SAUNDERS is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and clinical supervisor working in the homeless sector and private practice. She is a member of the Free Psychotherapy Network.
3.30–4 Break
4–5.30 Experiential group
Facilitator: Lakis Georghiou
Sunday 8 March
10–10.30 Arrival
10.30–12.15 Seminar – Living with labels: judgements and experience
Facilitators: Laura Neall and Tristan Voice
LAURA NEALL is a teacher and TRISTAN VOICE is a PA psychotherapist who continues to work in the NHS as, among other things, a community psychiatric nurse. They both have an interest in the way psychiatric labels are commonly used (or misused) "in the community".
12.15–1.15 Lunch (not provided)
1.15–3.30 Film screening and discussion
Facilitator: Rob White
3.30–4 Break
4–5.30 Experiential group
Facilitator: Lakis Georghiou
Spring/summer 2020
WEEKEND 5
Saturday 25 April
10–10.30 Arrival
10.30–1 Workshop – Family constellations
Facilitators: Paul Zeal and Carol Zeal
PAUL ZEAL and CAROL ZEAL trained in Systemic Constellations in 2005 with the Hellinger Institute of Britain (HIB), now called the Centre for Systemic Constellations. Carol has been a Homeopath since 1985, and Cranio-Sacral Therapist (Karuna Institute) since 1995. Paul, beginning with living with R.D. Laing in Kingsley Hall from 1966, worked in PA households for twenty years. He trained with Laing at the PA from 1970, and in the 1980s held senior executive and training positions in the PA before moving to the South West with Carol in 1985. Thereafter he chaired the Severnside Institute for Psychotherapy and served on the training committee of Exeter University’s Psychodynamic Training.nd
1–2 Lunch (not provided)
2–3.30 Seminar – The scapegoat, justice and religion: the importance of the excluded in criminal justice policy
Facilitator: Paul Mathew
PAUL MATHEW is a practicing solicitor and team supervisor, working in the criminal justice system as advocate in the magistrates' courts and in police stations. He brings to his practice experience of previous lives as teacher, survivor of the mental health system, resident of both Arbours and Philadelphia Association communities, community worker and group therapist.
3.30–4 Break
4–5.30 Experiential group
Facilitator: Lakis Georghiou
Sunday 26 April
10.30–11 Arrival
11–12.30 Seminar – Out of the darkness: a community-led art psychotherapy response to the Grenfell Tower fire
Facilitator: Susan Rudnik
SUSAN RUDNIK is an art psychotherapist and supervisor and the founder of Latimer Community Art Therapy. Susan works with hospitalised children and adolescents on paediatric wards in the NHS, currently at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, as well as working in private practice and supervision. She is an editor for ATOL (Art Therapy OnLine) and teaches on the MA art psychotherapy course at Goldsmiths. Publications: "‘Cheerful and not Cheerful’: Art Psychotherapy on a Paediatric Ward", in Julia Meyerowitz-Katz and Dean Reddick (eds), Art Therapy in the Early Years: Therapeutic interventions with infants, toddlers and their families (Routledge, 2016).
"Out of the Darkness: A Community led Art Psychotherapy Response to the Grenfell Tower Fire," Art Therapy Online (ATOL), 9(1), 2018.
12.30–1.15 Lunch (not provided)
1.15–3.30 Film screening and discussion
Facilitator: Rob White
3.30–4 Break
4–5.30 Experiential group
Facilitator: Lakis Georghiou
WEEKEND 6
Saturday 6 June
10–10.30 Arrival
10.30–12 Seminar – “What was I doing there?” Reflections on the place of the therapist in a PA house
Facilitator: Hilary Cooper
HILARY COOPER trained as a social worker and worked in north Kensington for the Family Service Unit, working with families with multiple difficulties. Following this she did various other social work jobs, primarily working with families. She lived in one of the PA houses which was established by Dr. Hugh Crawford, who for many years was one of the five Members of the PA and had a special interest in communities. She trained as a psychotherapist on the PA training programme and has had a private practice for over thirty years. She worked as therapist to one of the PA community houses for thirty-three years, retiring from this in 2016. She also
worked in the NHS for ten years as a therapist based in GP practices in Brent, offering short-term therapy and working with a wide range of people from diverse cultures and socio-economic backgrounds.
12–1 Lunch (not provided)
1–3.30 Workshop – drum healing
Facilitator: Richard Kensington
RICHARD KENSINGTON is a professional percussionist with a specialism in Afro Cuban percussion, playing conga and batá drums. His current work as a musician in seven hospitals across the East Midlands with OPUS Music CIC draws on his twenty years of experience as a performer, studies of ceremonial drumming in Cuba, group drumming facilitation as well as specific training in the use of music in healthcare settings. He uses drums in groups in schools, hospitals and community settings to engage people and bring them together through shared rhythm-making.
3.30–4 Break
4–5.30 Experiential group
Facilitator: Lakis Georghiou
Sunday 7 June
10.30–11 Arrival
11–12.30 Workshop – Art therapy
Facilitator: Paolo Plotegher
PAOLO PLOTEGHER holds an MA in Art Psychotherapy and a PhD in Visual Cultures. He has experimented with collective and situated forms of self-organisation for more than a decade.
12.30–1.15 Lunch (not provided)
1.15–3.30 Film screening and discussion
Facilitator: Rob White
3.30–4 Break
4–5.30 Experiential group
Facilitator: Lakis Georghiou